


interstitial: activation energy

by Splintered_Star



Series: constructive interference [2]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:35:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,204
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25515124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Splintered_Star/pseuds/Splintered_Star
Summary: Choices have been made and history has slid off its old course, but inertia remains, and forces stay in motion.Poe Dameron still crash lands on Jakku.Snoke's claws still reach far.
Relationships: Finn/Kylo Ren
Series: constructive interference [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1805965
Comments: 6
Kudos: 32





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is not the next arc of the series. It is, however, /setting up/ the next arc.

Poe Dameron crashes on Jakku, which honestly he’s pretty grateful for – this whole mess will be easier if the Order thinks he’s dead – and manages to get out of the downed tie with only a sprained ankle and a torn jacket.

Not bad, all considered, for being stuck alone on a barely inhabited desert planet.

Man, he hopes Finn got out okay. That trusting in Kylo wasn’t a massive fucking mistake. A lotta things went on in that conversation that didn’t make any sense, but Poe doesn’t think it was a ruse. He hopes.

His report to the General is going to be /wild/.

Poe nods, scanning the horizon. Right. First priority: BB8. There’s a chance the little droid got picked up by scavengers, and from his briefing, that would meaaaaaaan….

He spots the trading station, and sets off.

“Beebee!” Poe slides on his knees and his droid burbles happily in his arms. “I was so worried about you little guy!”

BB8 chirps at him in rapid fire beeps, antenna twitching back and forth, talking of a dramatic rescue by –

“Hey!” Poe looks up and – oh, hello – leans back from the staff in his face. BB8 beeps something about how this is his person, it’s okay. The young woman drops her staff but glares at him. BB8 chirps again and Poe grins, shifting up to his feet. He only winces a little at his ankle.

“Thanks for keeping an eye on beebee, you’re a life saver!” BB8 chirps in agreement. The woman frowns at him, arms crossed.

“You need to be more responsible! If I hadn’t been there –“

Poe is about to defend his own honor and BB8’s capability for chaos when someone in the marketplace shouts, “That’s them, get the droid!”

Poe hisses, grabs the woman’s hand to drag her to safety only to have it snatched back, and runs for the shipyard.

Turns out the woman – Rey, she yells at him, mid dogfight, after Poe calls her ‘ma’am’ for the 17th time - is a pretty awesome pilot.

Also Poe is like…. 64% certain that this ship is the Millennium Falcon, but he’s a bit busy to fanboy at the moment.

Finally they break atmo and hit hyperspace. Poe leans against the console of the probably-Falcon and whoops tiredly. He pushes up and goes to talk to BB8 – okay, maybe find a medpack, that too, he thinks when his ankle throbs.

He meets Rey half way to the galley. For the first time, she looks nervous.

“We – I have to go back.” She blurts. Poe stares at her, boggling. “My parents will be looking for me. I have to go back.”

Oh, man. Poe winces. “That place is crawling with Order thugs right now. You go down there, in this ship, after being seen with me and beebee? You’ll disappear and no one will be able to find you.” Rey looks so miserable that Poe hurts for her. “Look, let’s make a deal. I need to get me and beebee to the Resistance. Once we get somewhere I can transfer info, I’ll get you another ship and you can come back once the coast is clear. Hell, I’ll come with you and we can find your parents together.”

Rey’s mouth twists, and she looks away. Eventually, she nods. Poe grins. He turns to find a medpack – and then turns back. 

“Oh, and great flying back there!” He winks at her, maybe flirting a /little/. “We make a pretty good team.”

She blinks at him, but she’s smiling now, and that’s enough of a victory for now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can never manage Poe for long, but he is fun to write. 
> 
> Also, I would feel bad if I left Rey on Jakku.


	2. Chapter 2

The first day:

Kylo drops his helmet and his hands. Adrenaline pumps through his body, disbelief tempered by the sensation that this isn't real, this can't be real, he couldn't have just -

He feels like he had running from the Jedi temple, except this time there's no Snoke to run to, no threats to flee from except the long weakening of himself, no one but -

-Finn, looking at him. Finn who looks so relieved, so happy. Finn, who asked him to come with him.

Kylo wraps his arms around Finn's shoulders, closer than they'd ever dared to get before, and feels the emptiness of space around them. The faint prickle of the Finalizer in the distance, only visible in his mind because it's familiar.

He breathes into Finn's shoulder. "Where are we going to go?"

Finn is scared too, he realizes. Scared and doing it anyway.

"Anywhere."

In that moment, it feels possible.

The second day:

It no longer feels possible.

Kylo Ren is ripped away from his body and into rage – not his own, not this, this is –

“My apprentice,” the voice echoes through him, shaking him down to the molecule, shaking him apart with the rage of it, “You are not where you have been instructed to be.”

Of course he can’t leave, of course his master would find him wherever he ran, he is tied on the end of a string–

-A hand, wrapped around his, the string cut –

Kylo slams back into his body. He is here, wrapped in someone else’s power–

Finn. Finn, wrapping the force around them both. Finn, skin sweating, eyes wide, hiding them both. The Force snarls and rocks with Snoke’s search, but Finn drops them both into some space inside that cannot be seen.

The storm passes, Snoke’s focus moving away. Finn leans against him, panting, blood dripping from a bitten lip.

He’s done the impossible, and hidden from Snoke’s direct gaze.

Kylo doesn’t think he’ll be able to do it twice.

“He’s never going to let me go,” Kylo gasps, sobs, against Finn’s shoulder. “You could disappear but he’s never going to let me go.”

The moment Kylo says it – leave me here and save yourself – he dreads the response.

He feels Finn consider it. He feels the choices being made, potential futures flickering in and out of sight around them.

If Finn leaves, Kylo will return to Snoke. Except – he does not know if he can. He does not know if Snoke will take him back. He does not know if he can face Snoke and accept his teaching, knowing as he does that it will end in his destruction.

Finn breathes.

“Is there – anyway we can-“ He’s trying. Kylo can’t believe he’s trying. Finn heaves another breath. “I don’t want to leave you behind.”

He will, Kylo knows. Finn will do what he must. But he doesn’t want to, and maybe that counts for something.

Kylo closes his eyes.

He’d always expected this end, anyway.

“Yeah. There’s something.”

The third day:

They spend hours in tense discussion, options proposed and discarded. Kylo had plans but none of them work here and now, all of them relying on things he no longer trusts and timelines that are no longer feasible.

Kylo throws his helmet against a wall, and decides.

Finn hesitates. “Are you sure?”

Kylo is. It feels right. It feels inevitable. It feels like running from a collapsed temple, it feels like meeting Finn’s eyes and seeing his own reflection.

It feels like destiny’s red cord, wrapping itself around his throat once more.

He nods, and goes to the computer to set their destination.


End file.
